Overstability in Saturn's Rings
Abstract
Overstability was predicted as a spontaneous instability for Saturn's rings about ten years ago (Schmit and Tscharnuter, 1995, Icarus). If the ring is overstabl e, it develops axisymmetric waves of one hundred meters to kilometers in length. Such waves were indeed found in data obtained by the Cassini Radio Science Subsystem (Thomson et al., GRL, 2007) and the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (Colwell et al., Icarus, 2007). We review theoretical aspects of overstability using simple hydrodynamic models and simulations. In this approach overstable modes are found to form travelling nonlinear wavetrains. Due to the effect of self-gravity, the wavelength assumes a value of roughly one hundred particle diameters.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008AGUFM.P32A..09S
- Keywords:
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- 6265 Planetary rings;
- 6275 Saturn